Universal Three-Year-Old Preschool

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:22): My question is to the Minister for Education. How does the government respond to recommendation 18(b) of the royal commission? With your leave, sir, and that of house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Recommendation 18 highlights that under the proposed model, working parents won't be able to access those public preschools for their three year olds and that, unless the commonwealth funding changes, parents will be left paying for their child's preschool. Part (b) of the recommendation leaves the decision as to whether these parents will benefit from fee relief entirely up to the state government to consider.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:23): I thank the member for Morialta. That is a good question. I am pleased to have the opportunity to address it, because of course one of the challenges thrown up by the mixed model that the royal commissioner recommended, and that we have accepted, is that for those three year olds who will be receiving their dose of three-year-old preschool in a long day care setting, the arrangements in terms of pay for that are different from the cost of preschool currently in the four-year-old government system which, as the royal commission report finds, is on average about $488 a year for government preschool. This is very affordable, obviously, which is good and how we would like to keep it.

At the moment, if we were offering that three-year-old preschool in a long day care setting now, there would be a cost differential between the two settings. There are a few very, very important moving parts here that we really need to remember that will be resolved one way or the other by 2026, when this rollout commences.

One of those is an inquiry started by the federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, from the Productivity Commission, which is looking into a number of issues in the area of early childhood. One of the terms of reference in particular is to contemplate whether or not the childcare subsidy that is currently received by those families who have their children in long day care, and the amount that they receive in terms of that subsidy differs depending on what their income is. That term of reference talks about whether or not a 90 per cent flat rate will actually be introduced regardless of the income of the families using that service. There is also an ACCC inquiry.

On top of that, in this most recent federal budget just gone there has been an increase in the childcare subsidy, which was another election commitment of the Albanese government which is now being delivered. Already, we are seeing some of those families who fall into those categories receiving a boost in terms of the childcare subsidy.

The royal commissioner was asked questions about this on the weekend, and perhaps on the radio as well, and said that if we see those inquiries resolved in a positive way for South Australia—which I am hopeful they will be—I am hopeful that we will be at least at parity in terms of the cost for those families having kids getting their dosage of three-year-old preschool in a long day care setting compared with those families who might be getting their three or four-year-old preschool in a government setting.

Given that our commencement of three-year-old preschool begins in 2026, there will be a resolution to both those inquiries and there will be certainty for South Australian parents before the rollout of our election commitment begins.